VEGAN CANNOLI
TUBE SHAPED ITALIAN PASTRIES
FILLED WITH VARIOUS VEGAN SWEET FILLINGS
FROM THE PASTRIES CHAPTER OF THE VEGAN BAKER
They’re totally tubular, dude!
Cannoli tubes are generally inexpensive to buy, and are essential for making these cigar-shaped pastries, which are generally filled with ricotta. Homemade and store-bought vegan ricotta just doesn’t cut it yet for me. As an apology, I’ve provided as many alternatives as I can, so you can find the cannoli of your dreams. A simple vanilla or lemon filling with pistachio is pretty reliable, though. This dairy and egg-free, plant based twist to traditional cannoli is here to ensure everybody gets to have a bite of the deliciously delightful experience of crunching into a cannolo.
PICK YOUR POISON! Not really, but I’ve put together 8 different sweet, plant based cannoli filling ideas for you below which you can peruse, skip straight to the one you want or skip even further to the crispy pastry dough recipe if you’ve already got your filling in mind.
How do I make vegan White Chocolate Ganache Cream?
120 g (41⁄2 oz) dairy-free white chocolate
210 ml (7 fl oz) vegan cream, chilled
3 tablespoons icing (confectioners’) sugar
To make the white chocolate ganache cream, add the white chocolate and 3 tablespoons of the cream to a microwave-safe bowl and blast in a microwave, stirring at 15 second-increments, until melted. Allow to fully cool in the fridge.
Use stand mixer with a whip attachment or a large mixing bowl and hand-held electric beaters to beat the chilled white chocolate ganache cream for 2 minutes to loosen. Pour in the remaining chilled cream and the icing sugar and beat for a further 3–4 minutes on high speed to thicken.
Try this recipe where it is heaped onto my (not-so) Dark Forest Pie in The Vegan Baker!
How do I make vegan Vanilla or Chocolate Custard?
165 g (6 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
65 g (2 1⁄4 oz) vegan custard powder
250 ml (8 1⁄2 fl oz) coconut cream or vegan cream
750 ml (25 1⁄2 fl oz) coconut milk
11⁄2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
Thoroughly whisk the sugar, custard powder and coconut cream in a saucepan. Set over medium heat and stir until the mixture begins to thicken. Gradually whisk in the coconut milk, until the mixture is bubbling. Switch off the heat and mix in the vanilla bean paste. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before moving on. To make it chocolatey, when you remove the custard from the stove, stir in 100 g (31⁄2 oz) crumbled dark chocolate and 30 g (1 oz) Dutch (unsweetened) cocoa powder.
How do I make vegan Quick Rum Whipped Cream?
The rum-whipped cream uses a jar hack to quickly aerate cream. You can swap in any of the flavoured syrups from this book to make speedy whipped cream that can be used wherever whipped cream is asked for.
200ml (7 fl oz) vegan cream, chilled
2 tablespoons Rum syrup (see below)
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
Rum Syrup
80 g (23⁄4 oz) granulated white sugar
50 ml (13⁄4 fl oz) dark spiced rum
Bring the sugar and 80 ml (21⁄2 fl oz) of water to the boil in a saucepan over medium heat, then simmer over very low heat for 3 minutes, adding the rum for the last minute. Remove from the heat.
To make the rum-whipped cream, add the ingredients to a jar, seal well and shake vigorously for 30–60 seconds.
How do I make vegan Crème Pâtissière (and what is it?)?
Crème pâtissière (pastry cream) can be thought of as a sturdier custard. In contrast to custard, which is a pourable consistency, crème pât sets thick and pipeable, so is the best choice for injecting into donuts and pastries. Or piping into cannoli!
225 ml (7 1⁄2 fl oz) soy milk
60 g (2 oz) granulated white sugar
30 g (1 oz) cornflour (cornstarch)
25 g (1 oz) vegan butter
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
pinch of fine salt
40 ml (1 1⁄4 fl oz) bourbon or rum (optional, for flavour)
Thoroughly whisk the soy milk, sugar and cornflour in a saucepan. Place over medium heat and stir for about 5 minutes, until the mixture thickens. Switch off the heat. Mix in the butter, vanilla bean paste, salt and alcohol, if using. (If leaving alcohol out, double the quantity of vanilla.)
Pour the mixture into a bowl, leave to cool for 20 minutes, then directly cover the surface with plastic wrap to avoid a skin forming. Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or even for a day or two before using.
How do I make vegan Lemon Curd?
So tangy and so sweet, we’re kicking eggs to the kerb and using cornflour in this curd. It’s the topping freshly fried French toast and pancakes pang for, it’s what you want oozing into your crumpets or out of your scones. Definitely right at home piped into cannoli. You’ll fall in love with the tang of this, so pucker up!
40 g (1 1⁄2 oz) vegan butter
40 g (1 1⁄2 oz) cornflour (cornstarch)
350 ml (12 fl oz) lemon juice
100 g (3 1⁄2 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
pinch of fine salt
In a small saucepan, melt the butter until it’s bubbling. Move the pan off the heat and whisk in the cornflour. Place back over low heat and whisk for a minute, to allow the cornflour to cook.
Add the lemon juice in splashes, whisking the liquid into the flour mixture and allowing it to absorb fully before adding more.
Whisk in the sugar and salt last. Simmer for 2 minutes or until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, then switch off the heat.
Your curd will keep sealed in the fridge for a week from creation.
How do I make vegan Mango Curd?
This man go crazy for mango curd! Try spooning it over ice cream or serve with scones, cakes or crumpets. A cannoli tube filled
50 g (1 3⁄4 oz) vegan butter
50 g (1 3⁄4 oz) cornflour (cornstarch)
80 ml (2 1⁄2 fl oz) lemon juice or lime juice
100 ml (3 1⁄2 fl oz) coconut cream (solidified part in the tin)
350 ml (12 fl oz) pureed mango flesh (from about 2 mangoes)
80 g (23⁄4 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
pinch of fine salt
In a small saucepan, melt the butter until it’s bubbling. Move the pan off the heat and whisk in the cornflour. Place back over low heat and whisk for a minute, to allow the cornflour to cook.
Add the lemon or lime juice in splashes, whisking the liquid into the flour mixture and allowing it to absorb fully before adding more.
Whisk in the coconut cream and pureed mango, then the sugar and salt last. Simmer for 2 minutes or until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, then switch off the heat.
Your curd will keep sealed in the fridge for a week from creation.
How do I make candied citrus peel and syrup?
Here’s a brilliant trick for citrus, which lets you use the juice for curds and drinks, while upcycling the peels into your new favourite cocktail syrup and candy all at once. Likely candidates for the candied zest or syrup are this recipe or other ones from The Vegan Baker like wholemeal cinnamon fruit loaf (page 110), baklava (page 153) and galaktoboureko (page 154). They make fabulous gifts, too.
5–6 large oranges, lemons, limes or grapefruits – or a mix
400 g (14 oz) granulated white sugar
110 g (4 oz) caster (superfine) sugar, for tossing
Prepare a large bowl full of hot – but not boiling! – water. Wash the fruit well. Working with one piece of fruit at a time, slice off large strips of peel using a vegetable peeler (and avoiding too much of the white pith), until it has all been removed. Cut the peeled strips into thin slivers, adding them to the bowl of water as you go, to stop them browning.
Juice the fruit, reserving the juice for other recipes, or pouring it into a glass with ice and soda water for a baker’s treat.
Add the granulated sugar and 250 ml (81⁄2 fl oz) of water to a saucepan and stir briefly to dissolve. Bring to the boil.
Drain the citrus zest, then add it to the boiling syrup and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes, swishing occasionally.
Strain the syrup, reserving it for other recipes. It’ll keep in a sealed jar in the fridge for several weeks.
Spread the zest on a wire rack on the benchtop to dry out for a full day. (If you’re a neat freak, place a sheet of baking paper underneath the rack, to catch the syrupy drips – or clean the bench well afterwards, as I do!)
Once they’re no longer wet, toss the zest in the caster sugar and store in an airtight jar. They’ll keep in the fridge for up to 3 months.
The dough in this recipe makes about 12 to 16 cannolo, depending on how thinly you roll them out.
Vegan Cannoli (8 flavour choices)
Ingredients
- neutral-flavoured oil, for deep-frying
- melted dark or white dairy-free chocolate, for dipping (optional)
- icing (confectioners’) sugar, for dusting
- 240 g (81⁄2 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting
- 20 g (3⁄4 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
- 1 teaspoon Dutch (unsweetened) cocoa powder
- 1⁄ 2 teaspoon fine salt
- 40 ml (11⁄4 fl oz) vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vinegar
Instructions
- To make the cannoli shells, add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Begin beating on medium speed. Whisk together 120 ml (4 fl oz) of water, the oil and vinegar, then pour into the bowl. When the dough comes together, switch to the dough hook attachment. Knead the dough for another 2 minutes on medium speed.
- Gather the dough into a ball, flatten slightly, then wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge for 2–12 hours. As usual, the longer the better, so either plan well in advance, or lean into forgetting you’ve even got a dough in the fridge.
- Lightly flour a workbench. Use a dough scraper to divide the dough into six portions, weighing about 70 g (21⁄2 oz) each, and roll into balls. Flour a rolling pin and roll each ball of dough as thinly as possible, keeping the others under a tea towel as you work. When you’re done ... you’re not. Roll again, aiming to get the cannoli dough less than 2 mm (1⁄8 in) thick.
- Use a 10 cm (4 in) cookie cutter to cut out circles. Place a cannoli tube in the centre of one circle, then wrap both sides of the dough around it. Use water to seal the dough, but don’t wrap too tightly around the tube, as it needs room to grow. Ball together any scraps to roll out again and form another batch of cannoli.
- Preheat 5–7.5 cm (2–3 in) of oil in a large heavy-based saucepan until the temperature registers above 175°C (345°F) on a kitchen thermometer, or when the handle of a wooden spoon instantly bubbles when placed in the oil. Maintain the temperature at 175°C (345°F) while frying the shells.
- Working in batches, fry the shells for 1 minute on each side, flipping with a slotted spoon. Once the shells are crackly golden, transfer to paper towel or a wire rack to drain. After 10 minutes, firmly hold the shells and use a pair of tongs to slide the inner tubes out. Let the cannoli tubes cool totally, before trying to wrap another batch of dough around them and frying.
- Spoon your chosen cream or curd into a piping (icing) bag with a nozzle and twist to seal. If desired, dip each tip of the cannoli tubes into melted chocolate, then let it set on a wire rack before filling. Pipe in your chosen cream or curd, adding in candied citrus or chocolate as you go. Dust the shells with icing sugar once filled. Eat fresh.
Want another vegan pastry recipe with a crisp outside and creamy, soft middle? You don’t need any fiddly equipment to make this Vanilla Slice.